The Town-Gown Linkage and the Genesis of Post-war Baguio University Town1
Charita Arcangel Delos Reyes
University of the Philippines Baguio
ABSTRACT
This history paper traces the evolution of Baguio City as a University Town starting in 1946, with old and new homegrown institutions of learning (re)emerging out of the shambles and ruins of the Pacific War. Hailed as the summer capital of the Philippines, Baguio has evolved into the country’s Educational Center of the North. This university town dovetails deftly with a thriving local economy, Baguio City being a natural gateway city to the Cordilleras, as a regional capital, and a heritage and tourism city.
Keywords: education, college town, university town, town-gown linkage, higher education
Introduction
“History makes cities; cities are a precipitate of history” (Bender 2006). Such truism reflects the urban morphogenesis of Baguio City in northern Luzon, Philippines, which was constructed piecemeal over a century. Carved out from the mountains of the Gran Cordilleras, pre-Baguio represents the indigenous landscape that served as an Ibaloy grazing land, known as Kafagway, and peopled by traders in cattle, horses and gold (Scheerer 1933, 13; 27; 30; 34; 39; 43). In the 1900s, the colonial landscape took shape, with the American pipedream of a mountain resort, a colonial city and summer hub emerged in this architectural wonder of the twentieth century. It was designated summer capital of the Philippines on 1 June 1903 and became a chartered city on 1 September 1909. As a chartered city and the sole city in the Province of Benguet, Baguio was granted administrative and managerial autonomy. Americanization modified the physical, cultural and social landscapes of Baguio from the pre-1900 Ibaloy pastureland into a highly urbanized mountain metropolis that is now “bursting at its seams” (Halsema 1998, 5; Delos Reyes 2014). Colonialism has also radically changed indigenous belief systems and practices, customary laws, and land use patterns, with the employment of western science, urban planning, geographical and geological tools that imaged, imagined, envisioned, and designed Los Pinos2 (The Pines). Yet, most importantly, the Americanization of Baguio heralded the introduction of Western education along American and European lines.
The rapid urbanization of Baguio has amalgamated people from all walks of life. As a result, the once envisioned recuperative and preventive health mecca, known as the “City of Pines”3
(ACCJ 1937; Reed 1976), was supplemented with, among others, an educational dimension. The emergence of Baguio as a college town/university town (C-town/U-town) notched its post-independence landscape. Situated in an area of only 57.49 square kilometers, the number of schools at all levels reached 341, with 68 public schools and 273 private schools in academic year 2013-2014. Data from the Commission on Higher Education in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CHED-CAR), since it assumed its mandate in the region in 1994, has documented that of the 60 public and private Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the region from 1990 to 2011, 21 are in Baguio City. This makes Baguio the center of tertiary education in the region (PSA Factsheet, May 2014). Data from academic year 2015–16 shows that out of 114,398 enrollees in the region, 76,290 students were enrolled in private HEIs with more than 80 percent of these studying in Baguio City (SunStar, 27 January 2017). The mushrooming of schools in the city was matched by a significant increase in the number of transient population, mostly student boarders from nearby Cordillera and Northern Luzon provinces who troop to Baguio yearly.
Baguio’s evolution into the country’s educational center has reduced a tendency by the northern population to go to Manila to pursue education. Now it is home to thousands of eager and hopeful students as well as scholars who find the weather favorable for learning and academic work. These students and scholars are distributed over a wide variety of universities and colleges in the city. Being a hub for higher education is a vital part of what defines Baguio City today. As a U-Town, it has achieved certain academic standards at par with other college/university towns in the Philippines and abroad. This U-Town also dovetails with the thriving local economy, Baguio being a natural gateway to the Cordilleras, a regional (capital) city, and a heritage and tourism city. Former chair of the Film Development Council of the Philippines Briccio Santos described Baguio as an artist`s haven and a refuge for cinema`s arts (San Diego, 2011).
As Baguio charts its own future, the city’s educational institutions become a unique social laboratory of an educationally reconstructed environment where there is sustained and committed communication, collaboration and partnership between the colleges/universities and the Baguio community. This linkage between the non-academic community and the university community (referred to in the literature as the ‘town-gown’ linkage), helps make education become more relevant to students and graduates, and to the community in general.
This history paper traces the evolution of Baguio City as a University Town starting in 1946, with old and new homegrown institutions of learning (re)emerging out of the shambles and ruins of the Pacific War. Culled from primary and secondary data, the thematic presentations of this study include: the University Town from Western and Philippine/Asian Perspectives; Baguio as a University Town: What Statistics Show; Factors that Paved the Way for the Rise of Baguio City as a U-Town; the Educational Boom in Baguio, 1946–present; and the Beginnings of Higher Education in Baguio City.
The University Town from Western and Philippine/Asian Perspectives
The post-independence period beginning in 1946 marks not only the reconstruction period in Baguio City, but also the emergence of tertiary institutions. Fernando “Tatay” Bautista, the founder of the University of Baguio (formerly Baguio Tech), appropriated the “college town” hype (Abellera, 1969, 19) as a description for the many colleges in the “Pines City” (Halsema, Growing Up in Baguio, italics mine). Gumprecht (2003, 55) asserts, “the college town is largely an American phenomenon,” which he describes as “any city where a college or university and the cultures it creates exert a dominant influence over the character of the community.” This definition Gumprecht (2003, 52-53) criticizes as “deliberately imprecise because there is not a clear distinction between a college town and a city that is merely home to a continuum.” For him, to gauge a college’s influence on a town, one has to consider the following quantitative questions: “Is the college the largest employer in town? What is the enrollment of the college, compared with the population of the city? What percentage of the labor force works in educational occupation?” (Gumprecht 2003, 51–52; italics mine).
Gumprecht (2003, 51; 54–55) further enumerates the principal characteristics of “college towns” in an American context: as youthful places; populations are highly educated (because economists credit a highly skilled work force for the resilience of college towns); residents are less likely to work in factories and more likely to work in education; family incomes are high and unemployment is low; transient places; residents are more likely to rent and live in group housing; unconventional places; and comparatively cosmopolitan.
On the other hand, U-Towns from a western perspective were surfaced in Harris’ classification of cities, where he used a quantitative criterion to classify cities not as political units, but as functional units. One function of cities is its educational component, which Harris encapsulated in the phrase University Towns. U-towns have “enrolment in schools of collegiate rank (universities, technical schools, liberal-arts colleges, and teachers’ colleges) equaled at least 25 percent of the population of the city” (Harris 1943, 88–89; italics mine).
In effect, college towns are synonymous with university towns. Qingjun characterizes a U-Town in the following manner:
The community established around [the] university has a population of 50,000-100,000 and generally offers conditions like [a] good academic environment, convenient boarding and lodging, as well as good transportation, etc. The university town has the double functions of university and town, which is actually a community having (a) university as its core and also characterized by particularly integrated functions and environmental characteristics.
As the educational polymer, the university town whose functions are mainly to offer the infrastructure, logistics services, and security for (the) university has attracted lots of colleges to enter the town through certain mechanism. The establishment of the university town has far-reaching effects on the cultivation of talents, resources integration, improvement of local residents’ income, optimization of industrial structure, cultivation of economic growth point, improvement of people’s overall abilities. (Qingjun 2008)
U-Towns in the Philippine context are said to exist in a vibrant urban center. It has a major academic institution at its core, and the university, which is a major source of information, is the main feature of the place. Alabado (2006) argues that U-Towns “exist as centers of education of their regions and serve as host to various private institutions of tertiary education.” As to classification, Tolentino (2006) claims that U-Towns are of two types: a cluster of important academic institutions; and a large university campus that is rather self-contained, with “the presence of residential areas and associated network of economic, cultural and religious establishments” (ibid.).
A U-Town is a community dominated by its university population. As a place dedicated to learning, U-Towns are home to a transient student population, who forms a significant portion of the localities’ day population. Tolentino adds that the dynamism in U-Towns is attributed to the “diversity, mobility, and boldness” (ibid.) of its inhabitants. The ‘town-gown’ paradigm as applied to Baguio City is shown in Figure 1, which is a Venn diagram of three overlapping circles illustrating Larry Gebhardt’s perspective on the characteristics of a university town.
Figure 1: The town-gown linkage using Larry Gebhardt’s perspective. (http://www.pocatelloshops.com/new_blogs/community/?p=4477)
The first circle stands for the Baguio community. Gebhardt (2012) explains that community includes people in a locality with the existence of local schools and government services. Local communities provide the support services that the university needs, such as local policy support, human resources services, and a place of study where the interaction of science and society can really be put to test.
The second circle is for Baguio businesses, whether these are for-profit or non-profit, that utilize and produce wealth and services. U-Towns have significant impact on the economic, social and cultural life of the local communities. The local economy receives much of its lifeblood and patronage from the student population. The existence of commerce and trade, and goods and services tend to serve the needs and demands of the academic life of both the students and faculty. This is evident in the proliferation of boarding houses/dormitories/student housing/lodging places, affordable restaurants, photocopying services, internet cafes, stationary/school supplies and bookshops, pharmacies, dressmaking and tailoring shops, as well as recreational facilities and pubs. The areas surrounding the U-Towns have become major transportation hubs for taxi and jeepney services. U-towns are apt to have strong economies with fair access to services, commercial and industrial sectors that compensate higher than national standards. The physical and intellectual products that out-of-towners buy generate new wealth in the U-town (Gebhardt 2012).
The third circle represents Baguio education, which includes the school district, colleges/universities, and lifelong learning opportunities. Gebhardt (2012) notes that:
A university town has a strongly developed connection between community, business and education functions. When the education circle does not overlap the community and business functions very much, then it is simply a town with a university and some schools.
The university-local community cultural interface, represented by the intersection of the circles for Baguio education and Baguio community, is characterized with by an open, synergistic and vibrant relationship. Evans (2009) uses the term communiversity to describe a university that engages the community. Communiversity also refers to a trend that reflects “the partnerships between universities and their home cities, such as joint economic development projects . . . (and) a shift in education to increasingly emphasize out-of-classroom learning, such as internships and volunteer work” (ibid.).
C-towns/U-towns are survivors because they are compliant to change. They correspond and work in partnership with a broad range of social, economic and political gaps to identify and deal with threats and opportunities. They also have a clear-cut benefit over many other cities because they enjoy a steady stream of graduates, some who remain and others who come back years later, and every year brings a new crop of students and prospective dwellers to the area (Evans 2009). The attraction of new and vital enterprise grows with research and investment, so newer public and private resources come into a U-town. Younger residents can stay and raise their families with good quality of life when good jobs are available. With better incomes mean better retail and entertainment, and taxes are also generated from value-adding venture (Gebhardt 2012).
Adaptive university towns look forward to the future, reflect upon their pasts, and look out at the side windows of reality today (ibid.). U-towns are fun and energized places to be. They provide opportunities for socio-cultural and economic development. They are places from where the best information maybe acquired, thus facilitating the exchange of information, materials, and energy and even promoting a rich exchange of cultures. They are havens for scholars, business and government leaders, performing and creative artists and tourists. People can be busy with activities that are either or both “traditional and authentic, spiritual and earthy, contemplative and active, for university towns are inter-generational and inclusive” (ibid.). It is this quality of cultural life that distinguishes a university town from any other place. Examples of places in the country that can be considered U-Towns are Los Baños in Laguna, Dumaguete City, Miagao in Iloilo, and Baguio City (The UP Forum 2006; Town and Gown: The Urban Community and the University Community 1969, 2–10).
Brandon (2012) enumerates the advantages of being part of a C-town, even for the old population:
(1) Free classes. College is not necessarily expensive when you attend as a retiree. Many colleges and universities offer tuition waivers for older adults, so access to continuing learning, such as auditing college and graduate courses, opportunities for some to even contribute to some subjects in terms of teaching as a guest speaker, great opportunities for volunteering, lots of access to the arts, and a chance to mingle with people of all ages. Some colleges also offer continuing education classes specifically for older adults. (2) Good hospitals. Many colleges have affiliated teaching hospitals that provide medical services to the community that you would otherwise have to travel to a large city to get access to. These hospitals may provide cutting-edge medication and treatments and allow you to enroll in clinical trials. (3) Speakers and concerts. College towns frequently attract world-class performers, speakers, and musicians. In some cases, alumni and other members of the community can also get access to the library, lectures, plays, and performances for free or at a nominal cost. (4) Sports. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to don your favorite sweatshirt and cheer for your local college team in retirement. Sometimes community members can even use the college’s state-of-the-art athletic facilities. (5) Affordable cost-of-living. Many restaurants and local businesses cater to people living on a college student budget by offering affordable services. (6) A strong economy. Colleges generally have a stabilizing effect on the local economy. They have a guaranteed changing student population always in need of housing and a steady core of professors and administrators going nowhere. College towns typically have a thriving downtown which supports the business community and enough visitors to keep small hotels earn. (7) Public transportation. Public transportation is often reliable and affordable in college towns. Many other cities offer senior citizen discounts on public transportation. (8) Scenic beauty. Colleges are often built in picturesque settings, and they sometimes go to great lengths to keep the campus and surrounding community looking beautiful. (9) Think young. A college brings a steady stream of young people into town, eager to be on their own for the first time. This youthful energy can infect the whole town during orientation week, game days, and commencement, and there may be opportunities to get involved. (10) Retirement communities on campus. Many colleges now have retirement communities located on or near campus. A retirement community and residents have access to the university’s libraries, athletic facilities, and cultural activities. (italics mine)
Gebhardt (2012) further explains that the expansion of the overlapping circles of business, education, and community, can be speeded up in two key ways: “The first way must push out from the university itself. The core functions of a good university are teaching, research and extension service, (including some) considerable outreach functions operative in a university town” (italics mine). Colleges and departments in the U-Town go out into the community and business groups to study needs, transform curriculum, convey new information, help research the unfamiliar and solve problems. “The second way is a pull from community and business circles inviting and expecting, even demanding that the university come off the campus and add value to their organizations, employees and residents” (italics mine).
Unfortunately, the Baguio U-town must reconsider the direction it is treading in regional development, especially when trade-offs are lynching on issues regarding urban development schemes, environmental concerns and urban sprawl, ‘town-gown’ mismatch, excessive tourism, irrelevant curricular offerings, and many others. In this regard, a re-appropriation should take place through educational reconstruction.
The Baguio University Town: What Statistics Show
Using the description of Tolentino (2006), Baguio as university town is a cluster of important academic institutions. Of the 21 HEIs in the city, 19 are privately run schools while two are public institutions of learning. Empirical evidence as to what constitutes the Baguio university town is shown in parameters such as Baguio’s population vis-à-vis student population, ethnic/nationality/citizenship population in the city, enrolment in HEIs, highest educational attainment, employment statistics, household income of population, gainful employment, number of accommodations in the city, as well as the transportation system.
Baguio City’s population has been increasing from 1887 to 2018 (refer to Table 1 in the Appendix). The earliest recorded data in this table was in 1887 with 655 people. Population swelled to 362,441 in 2018. A slight decline is noticeable in 2000, but a decrease of several thousands in 2004. However, a population recovery took place in 2014 until another population decline occurred in 2015. The data, nevertheless, excludes the population of tourists who flock to the city at the onset of the peak season, beginning October to April. The annual growth rate in the city is 2.36 percent from 2000-2010; 1.54 percent from 2010-2015; 2.08 percent from 2000-2015 (PSA Special Release, 29 December 2017); and 2.31 percent from 2015-2016.
Baguio City has evolved into a multiethnic, multiracial and multicultural society.4 It has become an amalgam of both local and foreign nationals (refer to Tables 2 and 3). The censal years in Table 2 show that the largest ethnic group in Baguio City classified themselves as Ilocano, followed by the Tagalog, Kankanai/Kankaney/Kankanaey, Pangasinan/Pangasinense, and Ibaloy. By 2010, the Kapampangan, Bicolano, Bontoc, Ifugao, and Kalinga have swelled in number; and around 20,076 (6.3 percent) Applai (Western Bontoc) were in the city, along with Balangao (.53 percent), Bago (.46 percent), Kalanguya (.41 percent) and Itneg (.40 percent). Among the Visayan population, the Binisaya (2.27 percent), Cebuano (.45 percent), Hiligaynon (.43 percent), and Waray (.39 percent) were recorded in the 2010 census. Also, approximately 2,486 (0.78 percent) Maranao were recorded on the same year.
The Census of Population and Housing has recorded that majority of city’s residents are Filipinos: 99.27 percent in 1990; 95.23 percent in 2000; and 99.39 percent in 2010. Table 3 gives the number of the foreign population in Baguio City between 1942 and 2010. At the advent of the Japanese occupation in 1942, Baguio received Europeans, North and South Americans, Africans, and Asians in the censal years. Foreigners come to Baguio mostly for business, leisure and education.
In most recent times, North and South Koreans have swelled in number. This is what Barros (2006) has dubbed as the phenomenon of “Koreanization” of Baguio City. Data indicates that over 20,000 Koreans (and counting) are in the city on tourist and student visas, and lately, to launch local businesses. Baguio’s weather has been a very strong attraction, but also because “they found Baguio a suitable place to study English at local universities because of the relatively low cost of enrollment with no entrance exams required” (Barros, 2006). Many Africans and West Asians enroll in the city’s medical courses.
Meanwhile, enrollment in the various higher education institutions (as could be gleaned in Table 4), illustrates a surge in student population through the years, except from 1991–1994, when enrolment dropped from 41,602 in 1990–1991 to 37,555 in 1991–1992. The 16 July 1990 killer earthquake was the major reason for the decline. Beginning school year 1994–1995, there was resurgence in student enrollment until SY 2007–2008. But again, decreases in HEI enrollments in 2008–2009 and in 2011–2012 ensued. Based on Table 4, an average of 22.31 percent represents HEI enrollment in the total population of Baguio City from 1990–2017.
During the 2nd semester of 2017–2018, there were 886 foreign students in the Cordillera Administrative Region. Table 5 shows that out of this total number, 827 foreigners are enrolled in Baguio City’s HEIs. The University of the Cordilleras (UC) (59.61 percent) has accepted most of the foreign students, followed by Saint Louis University (SLU) (18.5 percent), trailed by the University of Baguio (UB) (13.18 percent), and by Pines City Colleges (8.71 percent). Data from the CHED-CAR also reveals that other colleges hosting foreign students include the Baguio Benguet Christian Colleges-Metro Baguio, Inc.; Baguio Christian Mission International College, Inc.; and Easter College, Inc.
Males (65.54 percent) have outnumbered female (34.46 percent) foreign students in the city. Among the foreign students in Baguio City, Asians (57.44 percent) outnumbered the Africans (35.8 percent), Americans (3.14 percent), and Europeans (1.21 percent). As to nationality, majority of these foreign students were Koreans (17.17 percent), Yemeni (11 percent), Nigerians (10.76 percent) and Chinese (10.64 percent).
The Philippine Statistics Authority provides a gender-disaggregated data on education in the city. Table 6 (see Appendix) indicates that there were more females (50.3 percent) than males (49.7 percent) who attended school, such as during AY 2007 to 2008. Also, of the household population five years old and over in the three censal years, most students have attained high school as the highest level of education and women exceeded men in all levels of education.
Table 6 also shows that there were more females than males who have pursued higher levels of education. In 2007, there were more females than males who were academic degree holders (57.0 percent) and with post-baccalaureate courses (59.0 percent). In 2010, majority of those with academic degrees (57.6 percent) and post baccalaureate courses (52.7 percent) were females. Females (51.58 percent) with academic degrees also outnumbered males (48.42 percent) in 2015.
Of the total student population in the censal years from 1990–2015, an average percentage of 37.96 constitute college undergraduates, academic degree holders and post-baccalaureate degrees (Table 7). This, in turn, comprises 33.13 percent of Baguio City’s population.
While there were more females in the household population of 15 years old and over between 1990 and 2015, more males were employed than females. This was certainly the case from 1990 to 2003 as shown in Table 8. Unemployment rate is slightly higher in men than in women.
The services sector remains to be the major employment generator in Baguio City. In 1990, most of those with non-gainful employment constitute the housewives, pensioners and students, while many employees in the university constitute the professionals, technicians and associated professionals, supervisors, and clerks (refer to Table 9 in the Appendix).
Meanwhile, majority of paid workers 15 years and over choose to live and work in Baguio City than in any other municipality, province or country (Table 10 in the Appendix). One can infer that this includes most of the products of schools, colleges and universities in Baguio. Also, more women prefer to work in Baguio than in any other province, but there are also those who venture to work in other countries.
As the educational center in Northern Luzon, an assortment of living spaces has proliferated to accommodate the growing number of students, tourists and residents, as well. Table 11 gives a classification of hotels, which includes inns, lodges, apartels, pension houses, and motor lodges. The data shows an increasing trend in the number of these institutional living quarters from 1998 to 2004, but a slightly decreasing trend from 2005 to 2010. More types of living quarters flourished to house mostly a transitory population.
Other than concerns on accommodation, the transportation industry has played a crucial role in the mobility of a transitory population. Table 12 in the Appendix shows the number of registered motor vehicles in the city vis-à-vis the Cordillera Region in the second quarter of 2015. The public utility jeepney (jitney), which is “one of the most popular icons of Filipino creativity and innovativeness” (Ranosa, De Guzman and Filione 2007) in the twentieth century, is the most registered vehicle in Baguio, followed by the metered taxi, and the school service.
The jeepney is one of the most popular, the most convenient, the cheapest and the most prominent mode of public transportation that services the thoroughfares surrounding the major tertiary educational institutions in the city (Bacero 2009, cited in Ranosa, De Guzman and Filione 2007).
In their preliminary analysis regarding the demand and supply of jeepneys serving particular routes in Baguio City, Ranosa, De Guzman and Filione (2007, 1) confirm that “the Aurora Hill and Trancoville lines obtained the highest demand with values of 43,973 and 37,689 passengers per day, respectively.” This is the route where many schools at all levels are located, most especially the major colleges and universities in the city, such as the Pines City Colleges, Saint Louis University, Baguio Central University, University of Baguio, University of the Cordilleras, and the University of the Philippines Baguio, together with a host of many other public and private elementary, secondary schools, and vocational and technical schools.
The Rise of Baguio City as a U-Town
Baguio was not thought of as an ideal site for a university at the onset of American colonialism. The rise of the first colleges and universities in Baguio is a post-war phenomenon. The city was initially envisioned to be a town with a university and not a university town in the colonial city’s Comprehensive Plan (italics mine). The article, Boom for a University in Baguio, published in the Baguio Midland Courier (1947, 4) stated that the recommendation to make Baguio a seat for a university started early on with Governor William Cameron Forbes. In his speech before the Second Philippine Legislature on 7 October 1910, Forbes reported this need for Baguio when he said that:
It is my belief that the Legislature should seriously consider making Baguio the site for a university, with the object of giving the students the advantage of developing their bodies and minds under the favorable conditions which prevail in a temperate climate. I am not prepared to make any recommendations, however, for immediate legislation to this end. (Forbes 1910, 9; italics mine)
Moreover, Forbes reiterated the same mindset regarding the foundation of a university in Baguio in his speech during the Fifth Annual Baguio Teachers’ Vacation Assembly at Teachers’ Camp on 15 March 1912. An excerpt in Forbes’ speech (1912) stated that:
I believe that there should be established in Baguio a branch of the Philippine University and that pay students should have the election of coming up and getting their education here in the hills.
The Annual Report of Eusebius Julius Halsema (1922, 20), the last American Mayor of Baguio, who served from 7 February 1920 to 31 May 1931, explained the possibility of converting Baguio into an educational center. He declared that:
Since Baguio lacks the geographical and economic feature necessary to make it an industrial or commercial center, why not make it an educational center? Baguio’s climate favors the physical and mental growth of the student, while its picturesque scenes, its beautiful landscapes, its pine-clad hills and mountains, its wild evergreen ferns and flora, all offer an abundance of material for inspiration and meditation along the lines of arts and literature. (italics mine)
The idea of a university town is a post-independence issue, for it would take the post-war period in 1946 for jumpstart plans on the college town or university town project to be revivified and have its fruition. Two Baguio Midland Courier articles, Baguio as College Town Seen in Letters (1947, 8) and University Town Will Boost City, Bring in More Business for All (1947, 1-2) identify Councilor Teodoro Cenizal Arvisu as the one who initiated the movement to help Baguio develop into a university town. Arvisu believed it will enhance business in the mountain city (“Baguio as College Town Seen in Letters” 1947, 8; J.B.S. 1947, 1; 2). There was much anticipation in the progress of this plan since Baguio was now deemed as the most ideal place for the establishment of an educational institution of higher learning. As mentioned earlier by E.J. Halsema, the climate is most conducive to study, not to mention its freedom from the annoying heat and dust that students experience from studying in Manila schools (Lizardo 1947, 1; 3). Thus, a student can devote oneself to intensive learning without feeling exhaustion or fatigue (“Boom for a University in Baguio” 1947, 4). Studying in Baguio would entail lesser expenses, especially for parents who will be most benefitted by this plan.
Meanwhile, the campaign to convert Baguio into a university town was the subject matter of local newspapers in 1947. One article argued that the university town would boost business in the city and make it a prosperous. The assumption was that there would be an incessant flow of thousands of relatives and friends visiting students and vacationing in Baguio all year round, spending money here; one can make this possible by advising friends to consider sending their children to study in Baguio (“University Town Will Boost City, Bring in More Business for All” 1947, 1-2). For business people, a university would mean better, if not a steady source of income if the student population of Baguio increases. Apartments and houses for rent are assured of patrons during the school term (Lizardo 1947, 1; 3). Still in 1947, private families and house owners expressed their intention to provide living accommodations to boarders at the rate of P50.00 to P80.00 a month (“Baguio as College Town Seen in Letters” 1947, 8). The city will be more than a boarding house territory for the thousands of impoverished college students. The transportation business will also get their slice from the increased business (Lizardo 1947, 1; 3).
In envisioning the making of the city as an educational and cultural center, the following initial plans were laid out:
The university town will entail an expanse of P500,000 and will cover an area of at least 91 hectares. The proposed site for the university includes Teachers’ Camp and Government Center, the old site of the (U.P.) College of Arts and Sciences ... To begin with, the group plans to construct six buildings large enough to accommodate 1,000 students. The proposed university town will have dormitories, armory, military drill and athletic field, laboratory, cottages for families of faculty members and students, stores, shops, college infirmary and restaurants. (“Draws Plan to Boost Baguio as Learning Center” 1946, 1)
It was said that the movement should have public community support, whether its emergence came from public or private initiative. The popularization of the Baguio U-town was carried on by “spoken or written word, through the mails, over the air, the ticker, through newspapers, across the country, the boom for a university in Baguio was carried on (“Boom for a University in Baguio” 1947, 4). Newspaper advertisements included bits and pieces of information regarding the plan to start a university in Baguio and to make the city a university town. The following were examples of Baguio’s popularization as a U-town:
Baguio Midland Courier 1 (7): 1. 8 June 1947.
Baguio Midland Courier 1 (13): 1. 20 July 1947.
Figure 2: University Town project advertisements for Baguio City, 1947.
Sergio Bayan, the first Filipino mayor of Baguio, who served from 1 June 1937 to 11 September 1939, and then became the undersecretary of public works and communications, supported this idea of a university town. He recommended “a 20-year lease of Government Center to the Baguio Colleges to pave the way for an early start of the university town project in the city” (“University Town to be Recommended by Bayan” 1947, 1). The Baguio Colleges’ recognition by the government and its subsequent increase in student population made the school the nucleus from which the Baguio-for-university-town move progressed (Lizardo 1947, 1; 3).
Almost two decades after the granting of independence, the then City Council, in consonance with Executive Order No. 121, created the Baguio City Development Board to propose and bring into fruition blueprints of the city’s growth along the lines of tourism, culture, education, etc. within the context of national goals. The Committee on Education of this Board, chaired by Rev. Paul Zwaenepoel, Rector of the Saint Louis University, had envisioned into developing Baguio as one of the main centers of learning in the Philippines. Then Councilor Ruben Ayson filed a resolution with the city council to make Baguio City a university town. Ayson pictures a Baguio whose “vast tracts of land shall be occupied by different universities, professors, researchers, and students.” He probes: Why not a community life that revolves around the development of minds; buildings, homes, restaurants, transportation, cultural, and recreation facilities, markets all revolving around, operating for, and catering to the community of the academe? (Baguio Midland Courier, 7 September 1947).
Another article published in the Baguio Midland Courier on 29 May 1966, Baguio City as a “citadel of learning” and an “Educational Center of the North” had already undergone several marked changes:
Then Dean Dionisia Rola of U.P. College Baguio envisaged a university town that comprises different universities and colleges in Baguio whose buildings shall be adjacent to a large stretch of land within or close to city limits (Abellera 1969, 19). By the 1980s, one can already claim that Baguio is indeed a university town. Former Mayor Ernesto H. Bueno touted “We have a university town here” (Gargantiel 1963, 17; italics mine).
Indeed, the relevance of studying the history of education in Baguio City, with emphasis on its being a college town/university town, rests in its capacity to influence the economic, social, political and cultural life of the city.
Post-War Educational Boom and the Beginnings of Higher Education in Baguio
Pre-war Baguio was noted for wooden and concrete school buildings, but she was left without a single school structure when Independence Day came. During the liberation campaign, schools were reduced to ashes and debris. In the face of this great hamstring, educational amenities were provided the students over two months after the city was liberated from Japanese bondage. For over one school year, students were taught in provisional schools. The students, who became more determined to get education after independence, attended their classes frequently and patiently though their feet rested on humid and at times wet clayish-earth grounds. Students provided themselves with bare ration boxes for desks, while teachers used the swaying canvas walls for blackboards (“Schools Given Attention” 1946, 8).
There was also an increase in enrolment of local natives and/or non-Christian students in colleges and universities after the war. Pio Tadaoan, a U.P. alumnus and then a Baguio Colleges Foundation (BCF) faculty, enumerated the following reasons for this:
After “three years of educational drought” (UNESCO-Philippines Educational Foundation 1953, 147) old and new schools rose out of the shambles and ruins of the Pacific War. The Annual Report of the Director of Education notes an increasing number of private schools from 1,855 in 1937-1938 to 1,869 in 1939-1940. Most enrollees were in the primary level, followed by the intermediate and the secondary levels. It is noticeable too that pupil/student population increased after the war, beginning school year 1947-1948 (See Table 13). Post-war education in Baguio City saw increases in the number of private educational and vocational institutions. As noted in The Baguio Banner`s article, “Schools Given Attention,” published on 6 October 1946, among these schools were the Holy Family College at Campo Filipino, St. Louis School along Assumption Road, the Northern Luzon College, the Baguio Colleges, the Pines Vocational, the Pines Art Institute, and the Cinderella Fashion. Thus, non-sectarian schools or lay schools were especially significant for initially making Baguio a C-town/U-town and the center of education in Northern Luzon.
On 19 July 1950, an office of city schools was created upon the recommendation of Emiliano C. Ramirez, superintendent of schools for Mountain Province. The office had a category of department level in the city government. Its top administrative positions consist of the following: a city superintendent, city academic supervisor, city industrial supervisor and city supervisor. The superintendent, as the over-all department head, presides in all meetings of the different department heads of the city. Back then, the superintendent receives an annual salary of P900, while the rest receive P600 each per year. “The creation of an office of the city schools will prove beneficial to the city schools as school authorities will then have a say in all measures concerning the city schools that may be taken up in the city government” (“Department of City Schools Newly Created Office” 1950).
Zwaenepoel (1975, 15) wrote that “normal schools became institutions of tertiary education only around 1925 under the American occupation.” Normal schools (escuelas normales) are training institutions for would-be teachers (Delos Reyes 2004, 164–87). Specifically, instruction at the college level (in the Philippines) did not begin until the school year 1928, when the Philippine Normal School (now Philippine Normal University) became a two-year college for teachers.
Before the war, there were only half a dozen schools in Baguio, led by Easter School, founded in 1906; Brent School (Baguio School for American Boys), founded in 1909; the Holy Family Academy at Campo Filipino, founded in 1913; the St. Louis High School, instituted in 1921; Maryknoll Convent School, founded in 1937—all these are private-sectarian schools. There were no schools for higher education that the government started before 1945 in Baguio City. Data from the 1930s to early 1950s, as shown in Table 13, indicates enrolments for primary, intermediate and secondary levels only. Schools in the basic educational levels were private initiatives. The government-supported Philippine Military Academy (PMA), the country’s military school of the Armed Forces, was founded in 1936 (the origins of this military school of the Armed Forces—whether the Santa Lucia Barracks in Intramuros, founded in 1905, or the Constabulary School at Camp Henry T. Allen in Baguio City, founded in 1908—remains unresolved to this day). In 1950, PMA was moved to its present site at Fort Gregorio del Pilar.
The restoration of peace saw the expansion, transformation and diversification of some schools into big colleges and universities, particularly the Baguio Central University (formerly the Centro Academia), founded in 1945 as a vocational school; the University of the Cordilleras (formerly Baguio Colleges and Baguio Colleges Foundation), opened in 1946; the University of Baguio (formerly the Baguio Tech) founded in 1948; U.P. Baguio (formerly U.P. College Baguio, and which became a constituent unit in the UP System in 2002) at its present site was put up in 1961; and the Saint Louis University, started in 1911 as a primary school. The emergence of higher education in Baguio is thus a post-war phenomenon—the year 1946 is a turning point in the history of higher education in Baguio City, with the growth and proliferation of homegrown schools after the Second World War. These schools are owned and managed by non-sectarian and private individuals (the Saint Louis University, the Baguio Central University (BCU), the University of the Cordilleras, the University of Baguio, and the Baguio Military Institute (BMI), a secondary school exclusively for boys (which closed after ten years of operation). The University of the Philippines Baguio is the only government school in the city, other than the Philippine Military Academy (PMA). A shoestring educational history of pioneer tertiary institutions in Baguio is summarized in Table 14 (see Appendix).
Prior to 1994, the Department of Education (DepEd) handled all matters pertaining to higher education. Republic Act No. 7722 or the Higher Education Act of 1994 created the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) with the task to “coordinate the programs of higher education institutions and implementing policies and standards.” Higher Education in the Philippines is classified into the following: (1) State Universities and Colleges (SUCs), which refers to “institutions of public higher education chartered, established by law, managed, and financially subsidized by the government,” and (2) Local Universities and Colleges (LUCs), which are “institutions of higher education established and supported financially by local governments.”
CHED supervises two types of HEIs, namely the CHED-supervised Institution (CSI), which is “an institution of post-secondary public education is not hired by the government, established by law, managed, supervised, and supported financially by the government” and Other Government School (OGS), which is “a medium educational institutions and post-secondary education, usually technical-vocational education institutions offering higher education programs.
Other than the six colleges and universities mentioned above (BCU, UC, UB, UPB, SLU, and PCC), the Easter College and the Philippine Military Academy are also considered major higher institutions of learning. Other institutions of higher learning include the Al-Maarif Educational Center, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Asia Pacific Theological Seminary, Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary, Philippine Women’s University, Meridian Paramedical & Tech Institute, NIIT Baguio, Women’s Vocational Institute, San Pablo Seminary, Informatics Philippines Baguio Center, AMA Computer College, Baguio School of Business and Technology, Philippine Public Safety College, Remnant International College, BSBT College, Baguio College of Technology (BETI), STI College–Baguio, and Data Center, Baguio (The Many Universities in Baguio City, A University Town), the Baguio Christian Mission International College, Informatics Institute Baguio, National University–CEDCE. Refer to Table 15 in the Appendix for a list of HEIs in Baguio City since 1945.
Out of a total of 60 HEIs in the Cordillera Administrative Region from 1990 to 2012, Baguio City had the most number with its 21 private and public colleges and universities. This is followed by Benguet (12), Kalinga (11), Abra (6), Ifugao (4), Mountain Province (4), and Ifugao (2) (CHED-CAR, 1990-2012). As of 2017, however, the CHED has 19 HEIs in Baguio City in its list (http://ched.gov.ph/list-higher-education-institutions/).
Tables 16a and 16b in the Appendix show the student enrollment in the various HEIs in Baguio City from 1990 to 2018. The data, however, excludes some earlier years from the Philippine Military Academy. Among all the tertiary institutions in Baguio City, only the University of the Philippines Baguio (UP Baguio) and the Philippine Military Academy are the state-run institutions, while all the rest are private HEIs. The top universities with the highest number of student enrollees are as follows: Saint Louis University (SLU), the University of Baguio (UB), the University of the Cordilleras (UC), and the Baguio Central University. These three are indeed pioneer tertiary institutions of learning in the city. Those with the least number of student enrollees are the recently instituted schools, such as the Keystone College, Baguio City Academy Colleges, Colegio Nacional Inc., and the Baguio Christian Mission International College.
There are three autonomous universities in Baguio, with their corresponding validity periods from 1 April 2016 to 31 May 2019, namely: Saint Louis University, University of Baguio, and University of the Cordilleras (List of Autonomous Education Institutions, AY 2016-2017).
Conclusion
Baguio City was initially envisioned to be a town with a university and not a university town in the colonial city’s Comprehensive Plan. While the desire to have a university in Baguio was spelled out in 1910 by W.C. Forbes and reiterated by E. J. Halsema in the 1920s, jumpstart plans to make Baguio a college town or university town only started in 1946. In fact, the establishment of the first homegrown colleges and universities in Baguio was a post-war phenomenon. Schools that were put up were immediate responses to a war-torn condition, thus the proliferation first of industrial-vocational schools before these became academic-granting institutions, such as the Centro Academy (Baguio Central University), Baguio Colleges (University of the Cordilleras), Baguio Tech (University of Baguio), Saint Louis University, University of the Philippines Baguio, the Pines City Colleges, and the Philippine Military Academy, and a host of other institutions.
At the turn of the 21st century, Baguio already has 21 HEIs, of which 19 are privately-run schools, while two are public institutions of learning (UP Baguio and PMA). Of the 367,053 total population of Baguio City in 2016, 57,633 (15.7 percent) represent the student population in the HEIs. Student population in the city has been increasing since the 1990 earthquake, although slight decreases were noticeable in certain crises years. From 1990-2017, an average of 22.31 percent represents HEI enrollment in the total population of Baguio City. The three autonomous universities that have the highest student enrollments are the Saint Louis University (SLU), the University of Baguio (UB) and the University of the Cordilleras (UC). Asians (57.44 percent) comprise most of the foreign student population, for which the majority are Koreans (17.17 percent). The University of the Cordilleras (59.61 percent), University of Baguio (18.5 percent), Saint Louis University (13.18 percent) and Pines City Colleges (8.71 percent) are the top universities in hosting foreign students for the second semester, AY 2017-2018. As to the highest educational attainment in 2015, academic degree holders comprise the most number (53.53 percent), followed by college undergraduates (45.02 percent) and post-baccalaureate degree holders (1.45 percent). More than 50 percent of the 15 years old population is gainfully employed, and they work mostly in Baguio City. Most of the gainfully employed are engaged in the service sector, professional and government work, and managers.
Some colleges and universities have come up with short histories of their schools in coffee table books, in souvenir programs, student manuals, school’s basic rules and regulations, and online descriptions in web pages to advertise their schools. Some have come up with chronologies of their beginnings, milestones and benchmarks. What is deemed relevant is to undertake a thorough writing of institutional histories of these pioneering tertiary institutions in Baguio to retain its legacy as a C-town or U-town in the northern part of the Philippines. Being a heritage city, writing educational histories is a contribution to Baguio’s local history. It addresses the gaps that general histories have ignored and relegated to the margins.
Baguio City continues to evolve as a U-town. Today, colleges and universities strive to respond to the needs of a pluralistic Baguio that integrates the skills, values, and strengths of the local culture as it faces up to the challenges of the twenty-first century.
NOTES
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